We’ve known for some time that Apple is shaking up the iPhone’s screen design this fall, with the notch destined to be replaced by ‘pill + hole’ apertures on the Pro models and the bezels slimmed down. But we haven’t known exactly what that means in terms of screen dimensions… until now.
Ross Young, the CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants and a regular contributor to the Apple rumor mill, has tweeted the diagonal screen sizes of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, together with those of the current 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. The 2022 models are larger, but not by much: the Pro gains 0.06 inches (about 1.5mm), while the Pro Max is just 0.01 inches (about 0.25mm) bigger.
(Note that, since these will again be screens with rounded corners, the diagonal screen size is largely theoretical: it’s the distance between the point where the opposite corners would be, if the screen was a sharp rectangle.)
Young explains that these changes are “due to pill + hole replacing the notch and narrower bezels”, although it isn’t clear how the former factor would affect the diagonal distance. The pinhole apertures take up less space than the notch, so will mean you’ve got more pixels to look at, but shouldn’t in theory make any difference to the length of the sides. As far as we can tell the above numbers are affected by the bezels only, which is why they have changed by such small amounts.
Indeed, and somewhat predictably, several replies to the tweet mock the magnitude of the changes, saying that a hundredth of an inch is scant reason to upgrade (which is true enough) and repeating the common refrain that Apple has forgotten how to innovate. Of course, the replacement of the notch is the significant change here–and the fact that Apple is only applying that change to the Pro models (and may also be giving them a newer generation of processor) is likely to mean plenty of upgraders go for the more expensive models. Apple usually knows what it’s doing.
As for the reliability of the source, Young is generally someone who can be depended upon. Until recently, in fact, he had a 100 percent accuracy rating on AppleTrack, although that’s since fallen to 92.9 after an error concerning the branding of the new iPhone SE. He also got it wrong with his predictions about the 27in iMac: Young was one of those expecting a new iMac model in March – what we got was the Studio Display.
You can keep up with the latest rumours with our iPhone 14 guide. Plus you might also be interested in How the iPhone 14 could look without a notch. If you don’t want to wait until September, pick up a bargain on the current range with our roundup of the best iPhone deals.
Author: David Price, Editor
David has loved the iPhone since covering the original 2007 launch; later his obsession expanded to include iPad and Apple Watch. He offers advice to owners (and prospective owners) of these devices.